Naked Consumer: How Our Private Lives Become Public Commodities

By Erik Larson

Book Overview

After receiving a sudden surge of junk mail directed at new parents--even though his wife at the time was merely pregnant-- Erik Larson, the National Bestselling author, set out to explore the lengths companies go to spy on individual consumers. Posing as a CEO of a fictitious direct-mail corporation, Larson infiltrated companies that gather and sell personal information to assist businesses in their marketing campaigns. He discovered the systems used to gather personal data, the staggering amount of personal information companies can gather, and the government's role in helping companies learn about you.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140233032
• ISBN13: 9780140233032
• Release Date: February 1994
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.1" x 7.7"

Customer Reviews

Principles of data collection and data use in marketing

Even though written in the early nineties, amazingly timely today (2008). Certainly technology has evolved and made data gathering exponentially easier, but the principles remain the same. I am a marketeer, so I read it not as the criticism the author intends it but as a primer of all the opportunities and implications related to data collection and aggregation. Erik Larson considers an affront to his privacy getting a sample package from P & G at his house before he is even back from the hospital with his newborn baby, to me it is just excellent data collection and marketing. I would love to read an updated edition taking into account all the new technology.

I am ashamed to be a Marketing person

I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Marketing. Let me just say that this book is the greatest. It even made me ashamed to be a marketing person! Enough said!

Great book about the excesses of bureaucrats and marketers..

..who invade and abuse the privacy rights of citizens around the world. Read this well written overview and realize that we can all be victimized by the excessive zeal of those who wish to profit from or control us...